Plans for S.A.-to-Austin-area passenger trains take shape

By Josh Baugh - Express-News :
April 27, 2010

The Lone Star Rail District's vision of a passenger train chugging along Interstate 35 on tracks between San Antonio and Austin is slowly picking up steam, officials told the Metropolitan Planning Organization at a meeting Monday.

“Our initial plans are to run about 12 trains a day and provide service seven days a week,” said Sid Covington, chairman of the district's board of directors. “We're trying to provide a predictable, reliable travel choice.”

The LSTAR is slated to run 120 miles, from Georgetown to San Antonio's City South, connecting 16 stations along the route, officials said. Their expectation is for the train to move riders from downtown Austin to downtown San Antonio in 90 minutes.

But commuters who are hoping to avoid nightmarish gridlock on I-35 will still have to wait years before they have the rail alternative. Environmental and engineering studies are under way and will likely take three years, with a final design and construction time beyond that.

“We're trying to avoid ever giving a start-service date,” Covington said, adding that a ballpark time frame is five to seven years.

MPO Chairman Tommy Adkisson balked at that time frame and said he much favored a two- or three-year schedule.

Tullos Wells, the board's vice chairman, said the commuter rail line would “make a compelling difference in the lives of people up and down this corridor” and that even a near-decade is a short amount of time for establishing passenger service along what's currently a Union Pacific railway.

“Five to seven years is imminently reasonable,” he said. “And in the life of this community, that's a short amount of time.”

Key to the project is the relocation of UP freight trains to a bypass that would likely run east of I-35. The bypass would cost about $1.7 billion and is a prerequisite to passenger service on the current UP line.

District officials have estimated they would need to obtain about $800 million to build a fully functional passenger rail system.